SQL Compare Feature Suggestions

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  1. Choose source control label as a version of a data source

    Today, SQL Compare allows for two options when selecting a version of a source control data source - latest (head), or any other change set. It would be great if there was a third option: to select a version by label. We use labels as a means for controling which code is promoted from development to test to production. Anything ready to promote is labeled as “build ready.” It would be great to use this build ready label when selecting the version from the repository.

    16 votes
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      2 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
    • SQL Compare Scripts Don't Work when Wrapped in a Transaction

      The scripts produced by SQL Compare do not currently rollback property if run inside a transaction: the first error rolls back the outer transaction, which removes the #tmpErrors table used to keep track of errors. This means that anything that runs after the first error does not get rolled back.

      One way to fix this could be to check for an outer transaction in the script and use a save point instead of an inner transaction if one is found; this would prevent a complete rollback and would instead roll back to the savepoint.

      3 votes
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        0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
      • Tight Integration between Sql Compare and SSDT

        The schema comparison tools that ship with SSDT are less well polished than the RedGate equivalents.

        Being able to pull in changes from a deployed database directly into SSDT using Sql Compare would be a powerful feature.

        This could be enhanced by using Sql Compare project files that were previsouly defined.

        1 vote
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          0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
        • Include backup file name in backup list set

          In the Edit Project dialog, when comparing against several database backups it would be useful to see the file name included in the list.

          1 vote
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            0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
          • Custom Regular Expressions to exclude differences

            I have a the same database in different countries with local support staff, my job is to develop our applications and database and roll it out to the different countries. SQL Compare is great for this, however it has a shortcoming. Because of the size differences in database and performance configurations we tier the database and app servers. When comparing schemas where there is a stored procedure which references another database on a different server it is flagged as a difference when in fact I don't want to see it. If we could exclude text written between square brackets, or…

            4 votes
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              1 comment  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
            • Have a SQL Compare version that supports PostgreSQL

              SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare are great. PostgreSQL is a great database - and one that seems to be gaining increasing traction. We're wanting to increase our usage of PostgreSQL, but don't want to leave our RedGate tooling behind.

              2 votes
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                0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
              • Make Compares date searchable

                If I'm making changes to a new version of an application and I am working on 2 separate databases, I'd like to be able to only grab and compare changes that were done last week for instance. It will show me new changes made on the original application last week, but it won't show me ones that are different from a month ago because I already know about those.

                3 votes
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                  0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                • Support for Compact Edition (.sdf file)

                  A lot of CMS packages use SQL Compact Edition databases, and it would be really useful to be able to compare those.

                  4 votes
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                    0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                  • Make all windows re-sizable

                    Some text in popup windows is unreadable when using large font displays. Because these windows do not allow re-sizing, the user can not adjust the window size to see the text. There is no reason that all windows should not allow re-sizing.

                    1 vote
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                      0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                    • Please make the columns in the compare results sizable

                      Please make the columns (Type, Owner, Object Name) sizable

                      2 votes
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                        0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                      • filter

                        I would like to be able to apply a filter on compared objects based on the object text. Often we have many objects which contain specific comments that link them together.

                        For example, currently we have a large development in progress where we are converting an application to be timezone aware and it has hundreds of changes to Views, SPs and Functions where a comment block at the top of the definition indicates it is "UTC" aware.

                        When comparing differences I would like to ignore all of these by being able to specify to exclude if the object text contains…

                        4 votes
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                          0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                        • Compare (and migrate) Database Diagrams

                          I'd love to see a function in SQL Compare to compare and migrate Database Diagrams. Especially between servers, but certainly on the same server.

                          We use them all the time to work on the structure of the of our databases and I'd love to be able to see the same diagram when I'm working in Prod and Test as I do in Dev without having to bring the changes across manually.

                          The code (for the easy case) is pretty simple.

                          UPDATE MyDB.dbo.sysdiagrams
                          SET definition = (
                          SELECT definition
                          from MyOtherDB.dbo.sysdiagrams
                          WHERE name = MyDB')
                          WHERE name = 'MyDB'

                          1 vote
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                            0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                          • Compare against Database Projects

                            It would be great to see SQL Compare support Visual Studio Database Projects (.sqlproj).

                            Current if you choose Source Control | Scripts, you can point to the project folder, but then SQL Compare gets confused because it loads in extra .sql files (eg. the 'create database'.sql that gets put in the build output 'bin' folder).

                            Selecting the 'Tables' sub-folder works more reliably (if just comparing tables!), but then pushing changes down to the files results in schema that no longer compiles because the SSDT tools require 'GO' separators between each DDL statement.

                            3 votes
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                              0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →

                              We are in the process of adding .sqlproj support to SQL Compare, and a beta is currently available. Please download from http://www.red-gate.com/EAP/SQLCompareEAP/SQLCompareVS and give it a try!

                              We would really like feedback at this stage, so please let us know how it goes for you, either in the comments here or on the Microsoft forum at http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ssdt/thread/b428ab08-0e56-4c1a-9e7b-e78cdf304e80 .

                              Paul Stephenson
                              Project Manager, Red Gate

                            • Sync a Database to a Source Control Repository

                              We really need the ability to "sync" a database to VCS repository, not just compare. I know this limitation exists by design because conflicts can be missed, but we have a scenario that demands it. We have batch check-ins that can take up to a half a day to commit manually.

                              4 votes
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                                1 comment  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                              • Alert table column order difference

                                It would be great to alert when column orders of tables don't match. These are important when doing bulk inserts inside applications.

                                6 votes
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                                  0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                                • Views, Tables and Stored Procedures should be scripted in order of dependency

                                  script creator should be better aware of dependencies such that creating/altering a view or stored proc only occurs AFTER the underlying table has been updated to include the new dependencies. Currently the differences are scripted properly but just not always in order

                                  15 votes
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                                    0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                                  • Include tables in "use drop and create instead of alter" comparison behavior

                                    Provide additional option to "use drop and create instead of alter" so that tables can be reconstructed blindly

                                    11 votes
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                                      0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                                    • ad

                                      i have found a problem - there are 5schemas showing up as needing creating in the syncronisation script, but the script produced has no dml to achieve this:

                                      PRINT N'Creating schemata'
                                      GO
                                      IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM #tmpErrors) ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
                                      GO
                                      IF @@TRANCOUNT>0 BEGIN
                                      PRINT 'The database update succeeded'
                                      COMMIT TRANSACTION
                                      END
                                      ELSE PRINT 'The database update failed'
                                      GO
                                      DROP TABLE #tmpErrors
                                      GO

                                      1 vote
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                                        0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                                      • sqlsompare report

                                        xml, html and excel reports for database differences (using options) include everything similarities as well as differences. Since, xml is excellent way to import data to SQL, it would be great if those reports included only differences (so that the file size is smaller). Right now the differences can only be output to text file if I am not mistaken.

                                        13 votes
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                                          0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
                                        • Make sure the connections are valid before getting all the objects from the first server.

                                          I have a server that I have to change the password on a lot, and can never (rarely) remember if I have changed the compare tool for the new password. I guess I could switch the servers around so that was the first it tries to get objects from. BUT it would be a nice feature to have it fail before doing any actual work.

                                          3 votes
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                                            0 comments  ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
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